


properly

by Vitali (exocara)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon, katsuki yuuri is as extra as his fiance, there's not a thing you can do to convince me otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 11:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10808013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exocara/pseuds/Vitali
Summary: Yuuri’s gaze snaps to Viktor and he sees that Viktor is watching the proposal with a small, wistful smile on his mouth and slightly shining eyes. Yuuri can read the longing in them and that is the moment that he realizes:He never actually proposed to Viktor.





	properly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [exile_wrath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exile_wrath/gifts).



> thank you, exile, for listening to my incoherent half-awake ramblings at 3am in the morning. love you. 
> 
> i literally dreamt this up.

It happens in Russia.

Practice ran late today leaving Viktor and Yuuri with no time to prepare dinner. Instead, they go to a restaurant near Viktor’s apartment. Normally this isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Normally it would be just another day in the busy life of Katsuki Yuuri and Viktor Nikiforov. However, something out of the usual schedule happens in the restaurant that night.

As Yuuri methodically removes the bones from the meat on his plate, he suddenly hears a hush fall over the restaurant and the white noise of muted conversation and metal cutlery clinking against porcelain plate disappear entirely.

Yuuri looks around and his gaze falls on a couple just a few tables away. One of them is sitting on a chair, hands over her mouth and her eyes wide while the other is kneeling on the ground. There is a small velvet box in her hands and the top is popped open to reveal something small and shiny, which Yuuri deduces is a ring.

The lady on the ground asks her girlfriend something in a soft voice, words privy to them and them alone. The lady on the chair breaks into joyful sobs and flings her arms around the one on the ground, yelling “Yes, yes!” on the top of her lungs. Yuuri feels happy for them, in the detached manner one would feel happy for a couple of strangers although something about it uncomfortably prods at a space at the back of his mind. The proposal was very public and it must have taken a lot of courage for the proposing party to carry it out. Yuuri couldn’t fathom doing it himself, what with his constant second guessing and anxiety and all. Thank god his own proposal took place in a quiet corner, hidden away from the prying gazes of others and featuring the only two people who needed to be there: him and Viktor.

Wait.

Yuuri’s gaze snaps to Viktor and he sees that Viktor is watching the proposal with a small, wistful smile on his mouth and slightly shining eyes. Yuuri can read the longing in them and that is the moment that he realizes:

He never actually proposed to Viktor.

-o-

The realization plagues Yuuri for a good, long while. He goes to bed with it on his mind and while he can tell that Viktor is concerned about him, he doesn’t have the mental energy to drag himself out of his spiral. He needs to make it up to Viktor, god, he really does.

He is distracted the next few days, flubbing jumps and withdrawing into himself. Viktor hovers near him all the time, demonstrating that he’s here for Yuuri, that he’s staying by his side, but not pushing Yuuri into anything. Viktor meets Yuuri where he is all the time and Yuuri loves him so much that his heart aches.

Yuuri should start meeting Viktor at where he is, too.

-o-

Yuuri first plans out a speech because there are so many things he needs to tell Viktor that if he doesn’t have a script he might just veer completely off course and start babbling about his thousand Nikiforov poster collection, which is really not something he would want being brought up in an engagement proposal.

He practices his speech in the mirror nearly every night that his husband knocks out early -- being a morning person means that the night is definitely not your realm of expertise -- and Yuuri sneaks into the bathroom and locks the door, buzzing with energy and a tight feeling at the bottom of his chest. It’s not a bad feeling, he thinks, similar to the emotions he feels right before a competition. It’s fitting, really. His skating is a love letter to Viktor and this speech is just another love letter, just more verbal and less abstract.

As he is debating between using just ‘Viktor’ and the full ‘Viktor Nikiforov’, the door to the bathroom swings open and Yuuri nearly jumps out of his skin.

 _“Yuu_ ri,” Viktor whines from the open doorway, “Please come back to bed? It’s cold and lonely without you.”

Yuuri feels the same clenching in his heart again, the love he feels for this man swelling so much that it’s a mystery why it hasn’t already overflowed out of his body and spilled all over the floor as physical manifestations of his emotions. It would be an interesting way to propose, surrounded by a tangible expression of his love for Viktor, down on one knee.

Yuuri realizes that he probably needs to sleep.

He locks his phone and places it on the bedside table, charging it beside Viktor’s own phone, before crawling into bed. Viktor soon joins him, a warm and familiar weight pressed against his back.

“Good night, my Yuuri,” Viktor murmurs against Yuuri’s neck and, not even five minutes later, Yuuri hears soft snores. He feels the corners of his lips quirk up in an affectionate smile and he closes his eyes, leaning back into Viktor’s embrace.

“Good night, Vitya,” Yuuri replies quietly, knowing that there’s no other place he would rather be.

-o-

“Um Yakov, sir,” Yuuri says during his break. Viktor is still on the ice, running through the step sequences of his program. He doesn’t really need a coach for this part and so Yuuri doesn’t feel guilty for taking Yakov’s attention off of him for a brief moment -- or, well, Yuuri doesn’t feel as guilty as he could be.

“What is it?” Yakov grunts, not taking his eyes off of Viktor, still dissecting Viktor’s performance with extreme precision. Yuuri prefers it this way. It’s easier to make the words flow right when there are no eyes on you and hence you don’t need to care so much about the nonverbal cues of conversation.

“If Viktor were to be proposed to, would he rather it be in a restaurant? In the middle of a square? Whilst ice skating?” Yuuri ticks off the ideas he’s written down one by one. His voice tapers off when Yakov turns to him, literally a full body turn, and pins him down with a critical eye.

“Aren’t you two already engaged?” he asks, a flash of sharp steel in his voice.

“Yes, I think?”

Yakov narrows his eyes. Yuuri sees his entire life flash past his own.

“Well, I didn’t really think he was serious about staying by my side when I gave him the ring -- although I really do want to stay by his side! I swear! -- and then the news of our engagement broke both to our peers and to me when Viktor said that the rings were engagement rings the night before the short program for the Grand Prix Final,” Yuuri babbles. “And so I thought that maybe I could propose again? Because surely Viktor would want another proposal, a better proposal--”

Yakov raises a hand and Yuuri’s mouth shuts with an audible click.

“A restaurant proposal will suffice,” Yakov tells him. “No... ‘ring bearing poodles with a backdrop of a hundred heart balloons’ needed. Vitya is… what is that word you youngsters use nowadays? Ah yes, Vitya is _extra_ but it has always been his dream to propose or be proposed to in his favorite restaurant like his parents have.”

That is a lot more manageable than Yuuri had feared.

“You are a fool, Katsuki,” Yakov huffs. “Vitya is more than happy with the proposal you have given him.”

“But I want to do it properly this time, with everyone around.” Yuuri pauses. “Is it alright if you are there as well, Yakov, sir?”

Yakov does something to his face that makes him look a lot less intimidating but also really uncanny at the same time. It takes a while for Yuuri to realise that he is smiling as he has never seen the old man smile before in his entire life.

“I will not say no to a free meal.”

“Ah.” Yuuri starts to calculate the amount of money he has to set aside for this entire plan. It is considerably less than hiring an entire live band along with special lighting effects and approximately fifty dogs.

“You should try to invite Vitya’s parents as well,” Yakov says in a thoughtful tone, making Yuuri stop short.

“Um.” Yuuri didn’t even know that Viktor _had_ parents. He had always assumed that Viktor’s past was a touchy thing and, along with the absenteeism of Viktor’s parents, Yuuri assumed the worst.

Yuuri should know by now better than to assume. As a rinkmate in Detroit once said: to assume is to make an ass out of ‘(yo)u’ and ‘me’.

Yakov takes one look at Yuuri’s face and sighs, somehow understanding immediately.

“I will send you the contact information of Vitya’s parents later. Now leave me to coach in peace.”

Taking the dismissal for what it is, Yuuri is thankful to scurry out of the conversation and back onto the ice. Before he left, however, he remembers one very crucial thing.

“Please don’t breathe a word of this to Viktor!” he pleads. Yakov rolls his eyes.

“Yes, yes,” he says. “Now go.”

-o-

_Phichit Chulanont created SECRET MISSION: VICTORY_

_Phichit Chulanont added Yuuri Katsuki, Yuri Plisetsky, Georgi Popovich, Mila Babicheva, Christophe Giacometti_

 

 **Phichit Chulanont** : GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY

 **Phichit Chulanont** : or day in general I guess. Timezones are so hard.

 **Phichit Chulanont** : ANYWAY can y’all keep a secret?

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : Phichit.

 **Phichit Chulanont** : Yuuri.

 **Christophe Giacometti** : I can keep secrets very well

 **Christophe Giacometti** : They usually don’t come out of me

 **Phichit Chulanont** : okay is that an innuendo or just really awkward word phrasing

 **Christophe Giacometti** : Yes

 **Phichit Chulanont** : fair enough

 **Mila Babicheva** : It depends on what this secret is about

 **Phichit Chulanont** : marriage proposal

 **Mila Babicheva** : !!!!!! And who is the one proposing???

 **Phichit Chulanont** : who else but the one, the only,

 **Phichit Chulanont** : YUUI KATSUKI

 **Phichit Chulanont** : FUCK

 **Phichit Chulanont** : YUURI*

 **Yuri Plisetsky** : heh

 **Georgi Popovich** : Why is Yuuri proposing?

 **Georgi Popovich** : Aren’t he and Viktor already engaged?

 **Georgi Popovich** : Is Yuuri two-timing Viktor???

 **Georgi Popovich** : Is Yuuri going to leave Viktor at the altar and elope with another person???????

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : I’m proposing to Viktor again.

 **Georgi Popovich** : Oh.

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : I want to do it properly this time, so I kind of need your help in this.

 **Yuri Plisetsky** : you owe me so much for this katsudon just so you know

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : I know.

 **Mila Babicheva** : Ooo, is this a secret from our Viktor?

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : Yes…?

 **Mila Babicheva** : COUNT ME IN

 **Christophe Giacometti** : I as well

 **Georgi Popovich** : I shall do my best to provide you and Viktor with the most romantic atmosphere!

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : that

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : Isn’t really needed Georgi, but thank you.

 **Yuuri Katsuki** : Anyway, what I’m planning is…

-o-

Yuuri makes the arrangements with Viktor’s parents. They aren’t the mean sort but they give him the impression of really spacey and unfocused people, nothing like his own parents back in Hasetsu, which Yuuri realises he needs to invite over as well.

He sends them a quick message.

While Yuuri’s parents are warm and inviting and supportive… Yuuri can’t say that Viktor’s parents’ _aren’t_ all of those but they are more distant about it. Yuuri gets the feeling that they believe very much in hands-off parenting and while they do love Viktor very much, he just isn’t their first priority. Or anywhere in their first five priorities, even.

Still, they are excited to meet their son’s fiance and book the first flight back to Russia when Yuuri finally manages to contact them. With the final guests to the proposal secured, Yuuri sets the date of the proposal and calls Viktor’s favorite restaurant to reserve many, many tables.

-o-

The day of engagement is almost upon them -- the next day in fact -- and Yuuri can feel the anxiety buzzing right under his skin. It is a rather unpleasant sensation, to say the least, and he is very on edge because of it. His replies become short and curt, his patience grows thinner, he withdraws into himself and never really makes an effort to engage in anyone.

At one point he remembers that he needs to have a ring if he wants to propose.

“Um, Viktor?” Yuuri asks hesitantly from the doorway of their shared bedroom. It’s been a while since he’s seen Viktor awake in the bed, usually going to bed too late after planning his proposal and its fifty-odd contingency plans, a good quarter of which end in him changing his name and fleeing to another country, and waking up to see that Viktor is already up and about.

It hits Yuuri, then, that it’s been a while since he and Viktor has actually spent time together in bed. It’s not only their sex life that’s been put on hold while Yuuri sorts this entire thing out, but also mundane things like cuddling and reading-slash-scrolling through social media in a comfortable silence with each other and falling asleep in each other’s arms. Once Yuuri realises this, the ache he feels in his heart is so strong that he can almost believe that there’s a Viktor-sized hole in it despite Viktor being right there in front of him.

“Yuuri?” Viktor looks up from his phone and Yuuri sees him just… _brighten_ looking at Yuuri, as if Yuuri is the centre of his world, the star in which he orbits around, the sun that gives Viktor light. It’s a little disconcerting to see because as far as Yuuri’s concerned, Viktor’s the exact same thing to him and Yuuri’s heard about what happens when two stars collide. However, it’s more endearing more than anything and Yuuri doesn’t have to look in the mirror to see the same sort of brightening happen in him.

“Viktor,” Yuuri says again and it’s different now. He crawls into bed beside Viktor and just leans into him, giving Viktor a small peck on the cheek. Viktor pouts and whines and bats his eyelashes dramatically, making Yuuri laugh and lean towards Viktor once again to give him a proper kiss on his mouth.

“Are you feeling better now?” Viktor asks once they part -- for real this time, and not just for a split second of air before they go back to kissing each other -- “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Hmm?” Yuuri asks, not too sure of what the conversation topic is when his mind is just filled with _Viktor Viktor Viktor Viktor_.

“You’ve been… withdrawn lately,” Viktor tells him. “I didn’t want to press you but I just want you to know that I’m always here if you need anything.”

“Ah.” Yuuri loves Viktor so, _so,_ much. He also remembers what he came into the bedroom for. He taps the golden ring on Viktor’s right hand. “Could I have this back please?”

Viktor tenses up, eyes going wide and then guarded and then, with visible effort, Viktor brings down his walls and Yuuri can see the fear and hurt in them.

“I…” Viktor chokes out, literally on the verge of tears. “Did I do something?”

It is now that Yuuri realises how it may have seemed to Viktor when Yuuri, his fiance, withdrew from the world for a good long while and then asked to _take back_ the _engagement ring_ that Yuuri had given to Viktor.

“No, no!” Yuuri gasps out, shaking his head rapidly and waving his hands in front of his face. “You’ve done so much for me, more than I could ever hope to deserve, it’s not you--”

“It’s not you, it’s me?” Viktor asks petulantly. Yuuri reaches forward to place his hands on either side of Viktor’s face, gently cradling him and brushing away the clear gemstone-like tears that fall from Viktor’s eyes. Viktor always cries to beautifully, it kind of makes Yuuri mad.

“I’m not breaking up with you, nor am I calling off the engagement,” Yuuri tells him. “I just need the ring for a thing, a… a surprise of sorts.” Yuuri smiles awkwardly. “I’ll be putting it back on you myself tomorrow, I _swear.”_

Viktor stares at Yuuri for a long while and although Yuuri usually would feel incredibly anxious, all he feels now is a strong, intense emotion centred on making Viktor feel better. It figures that Yuuri’s anxiety would be overwritten by his care for others, like some sort of empathy loophole.

“Okay,” Viktor says, subdued but not upset. “Okay.” His hands shake as he pulls the ring off his right hand, revealing a small patch of lighter skin under it. Viktor and Yuuri rarely ever take their rings off. He is still looking straight at Yuuri as he gingerly places the ring into Yuuri’s hands, like it is a precious, priceless treasure. In a way, it kind of is and Yuuri is humbled by the care in which Viktor treats the ring. “You, you love me, right?” Viktor asks Yuuri. Yuuri can tell that although Viktor is trying his best to sound unaffected and nonchalant, unpressurizing, there is an undercurrent of desperation in his words.  "You'll always stay close to me?"

“Of course I will, Vitya,” Yuuri says and it’s true. There really is no other place Yuuri would want to be.

(Yuuri promptly scratches off the contingency plans that involve him running away to become a hermit in the rural mountains of somewhere.)

-o-

Throughout the day, Yuuri can see Viktor fiddling with his fingers, hands often going to a ring that simply isn’t there.

Viktor is more distracted than usual, spacey and lost in his own thoughts, and he clings to Yuuri’s side almost ferociously. Yuuri might have been worried about his plans falling through if Yakov hadn’t taken one look at Viktor, frowned a little, and instantly ordered him out onto the ice. This gives Yuuri the chance to smuggle the box to Mila, whose job is to get it to the waiter of the restaurant so that it can be served to Viktor later on.

Yuuri leaves the side of the rink for a few minutes or so but apparently that’s enough for Viktor to completely lose focus and fall flat on his ass. Viktor then picks himself up and scrambles to the side of the rink.

“Yuuri?” Viktor calls out plaintively and it sends Yuuri scrambling back to meet Viktor. They smash into each other and do not come apart for quite some time. Yurio scoffs and calls them a pair of super magnets.

Thankfully, everything Yuuri has to do for the proposal is complete and all that’s left is to wait.

-o-

 _“Must_ we go out, Yuuri?” Viktor whines. “I just want to spend time with you and only you.”

As tempting as the offer may be, Yuuri has to turn it down. There are many people already waiting at that restaurant and if Yuuri doesn’t show up he might be torn to pieces.

“Yurio and the others are already waiting for us, Viktor. It’ll be rude if we don’t turn up,” Yuuri reminds him because the cover that he’s created includes having dinner with the Russian ice skating team members that Viktor is closer to.

“Really?” Viktor murmurs right in his ear and, _god,_ that’s playing dirty. His hand is hot on Yuuri’s waist and Yuuri suppresses a shudder when Viktor goes to nibble on his ears. Yuuri quickly disengages, but makes sure to reach out and grab Viktor’s hand, threading their fingers together.

“Nope. We’re going to have a good meal with your rink mates and then we can go home and you can do anything you want to me.”

“Anything?” Viktor’s eyes flash in the way that makes some part of Yuuri shiver in anticipation. The last time Yuuri had seen that particular look, he literally couldn’t leave the bed the entire night. And the day after that.

“Anything, if you would have me,” Yuuri replies. Thankfully, they arrive at the restaurant before Viktor could shoot back with any sort of innuendo that Yuuri set himself up for.

The relatively bright lights and dim chatter of the restaurant popped the little bubble Yuuri and Viktor had been in and Yuuri found the familiar anxiety rushing up to meet him.

Regardless, Yuuri and Viktor are led to a table where Yakov and Viktor’s rinkmates are already seated and Yuuri can also see Phichit and Chris in a corner, his family two tables away, and a stunning couple with strange headgear that don’t quite hide their very light shade of hair sitting a little further away.  

Viktor can tell that Yuuri isn’t feeling well and Viktor places a hand around Yuuri’s waist in an attempt to ground him. It works, to an extent.

When they are finished with their main course and are just waiting on dessert and drinks, Yurio speaks.

“Hey old man,” Yurio says somewhat reluctantly. “Do you prefer public proposals over private proposals?”

Viktor glances at Yuuri with a loving smile as he answers, “I love any proposal my Yuuri gives me.”

Yurio holds back from making a face. It’s very heroic of him.

Mila signals to the waiter and he arrives with a bottle of _Brut_ champagne, the very same champagne that Yuuri and Viktor had in Sochi. It also comes with a small, velvet box. Yuuri grabs it and kneels down in front of Viktor, in the middle of the entire restaurant, before Viktor has a chance to process what the box is.

Viktor’s eyes turn wide. Yuuri pops the box open to reveal Viktor’s ring. Viktor’s eyes fill with tears.

Yuuri has a script. Yuuri wrote his heart down on scraps of paper, editing and reformatting it to appear eloquent instead of just a bunch of things that can transparently be summarized into a simple “I love you, Viktor”. Yuuri has practiced his script multiple times, possibly more times that he’s ever practiced any ice skating routine ever.

Yuuri only gets the words, “Viktor, I,” out before he’s tackled to the ground by a sobbing Viktor, who is _finally_ ugly-crying, as Viktor shouts “Yes, yes, yes!” repeatedly in between kisses placed all over Yuuri’s face. Yuuri has a flash of deja vu to the kiss they shared on the ice at the Cup of China as Viktor’s hand cradles the back of his head to soften the impact as they both fall onto the floor in a heap of crying mess.

They are both sobbing as Yuuri slides the ring onto Viktor’s finger.

It takes a while for the both of them to realise that they’re surrounded by their family and friends, who are clapping and cheering. Viktor bursts into another wave of tears, hiding his face in Yuuri’s neck and Yuuri knows, deep in his soul, that there’s really no other place that he’s meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Omake bc shiezz said that yuuri never said "will you marry me":
> 
> Yuuri wakes up in the middle of the night.
> 
> "Oh my god," he says. "I never said 'will you marry me' to Viktor. Oh my god. Viktor wake up, I didn't ask you to marry me!"
> 
> "Mrrmph," Viktor says.
> 
> "Viktor wake up!"
> 
> "Yuuri?" Viktor blinks sleepily. Yuuri takes a moment to be appreciate abd alsp be envious of Viktor's 'just woke up' beauty before shaking his fiance once again.
> 
> "Viktor will you marry me?" The words slip out before he can hold them back and he winces. This really isn't the best way to propose to someone.
> 
> Viktor is immediately awake. "Yuuri," he says slowly. "Are you proposing to me again?"
> 
> "...yes?"
> 
> "Yuuri." A smile makes Viktor's face light up. "My Yuuri, my answer to you is, and will always be, yes."


End file.
